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Showreel 2015

This showreel contains a series of small projects. The technical aspects are shown on purpose and you can easily find a mix of modeling, texturing, animation and real time renders. Everyhing was produced by using professional tools such as Autodesk Maya (mostly for modeling and animating), Pixologic Zbrush (for sculpting, poly painting and post processing) and Unreal Engine 4 by Epic Games (for real time renders).

In the following list I intentionally describe what I did for each shot.

Dachshund Project

This project takes inspiration from my personal dog. The whole short video is based on different steps, starting from modeling, lighting and texturing to have a final scene compositing with everything wrapped up.

To get this work done, I started off with a simple image plane inside of Autodesk Maya, which was my main reference for the entire modeling process; beside that I collected google images as well as personal shots of my dachshund: that was a meticulous step as I needed to replicate as many anatomical details as possible. The magic lives inside a precious “box”: Pixologic Zbrush. A 3D solution for modeling sculptures, creating free forms from scratch like a real Michelangelo; thanks to my tablet and pen I spent time sculpting the dog.

In the next step, after finishing up with a million poly model, I was ready to apply a mix of textures and poly painting techniques.

The shaded result served as the base for adjustments and improvements.

In fact, from the forementioned textured model (the beauty pass) I progressively added the following maps:

Shaded with no color information pass: used to enhance details on different parts of the body (a sort of cavity contribution)

SSS Pass: literally Sub Surface Scattering, which is a simple map and not a precalculated SSS with CG algorithms. In this case very useful to give the skin a bit of saturation and organic look

Ambient Occlusion Pass: that is useful to add soft shadows on the model and create more depth in the scene

Specular Pass: the fur has some specular contribution which was empirically established (looking at my dog at different angles and exposures)

Matte Pass: that was simply added to separate the background from the figure

At the end lights and shadows and color corrections are applied… work is done!

PS. I remember that the 3D mesh can be purchased from my store and used for your personal projects and portfolios…

Piece of Cake Project

This video was created during my studies at the University of Kent (UK). In that occasion I was told to create a short movie in which the animation was the most important aspect that needed to demonstrate characteristics of professional quality.

The story tells a series of unlucky events for two funny characters: a clumsy guy with his fellow who try to steel a valuable statue from a villa.

The title “Piece of Cake”does not have to be literally translated as the meaning is self explanatory while watching the video.

From technical side, I was involved in the entire project, from modeling, animating to light setting and voice recording. Therefore I decided to schedule my time correctly, finishing by the deadline which was at the end of the Master Course in September 2011.

The main tool utilized for animation was Autodesk Maya.

Dobby Project

This shot was produced during my master course at the University of Kent. You can find a short animation sequence, which is the result of my previous studies and lessons by Mr. David Byers Brown, my ex teacher and one of the animator in the famous “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” movie by Robert Zemeckis.

As you can see in the video, I decided to download a well rigged character for free: the Dobby from “Harry Potter” movie. The character, full of facial expressions, made the animation work more interesting and easier to achieve.

The second character in the video is the Big Buck Bunny: a huge funny rabbit created by the Amsterdam based ‘Blender Institute’, part of the Blender Foundation.

Animation Showreel

This series of shots is related to small projects produced at the University of Kent. They are all animation sequences based on small term projects which allowed me to get familiar with the twelve animation principles more and more. Some shots are taken from my final project and mixed to other short clips.

Game Showreel

Let’s talk about games. Marco Polo project is an experimental adventure game for kids produced in Unity Engine . it’s a mini videogame located in Venice where Marco Polo needs to find a series of books throughout the levels and give them to the “Doge of Venice” in order sail a ship and leave for China.

This demo was created by a group of 3 people working on several aspects of the game.